To Concede or Not to Concede

There was some confusion this afternoon over what to expect from Senator Clinton tonight. The AP reported that Clinton would concede citing unnamed Clinton senior staffers:

“Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation’s first female president.”

“The former first lady will stop short of formally suspending or ending her race in her speech in New York City… But for all intents and purposes, the two senior officials said, the campaign is over.”

The Clinton campaign immediately put out a release correcting the story, saying:

The AP story is incorrect. Senator Clinton will not concede the nomination this evening.

Then the New York Times put out a story in its website saying that if Obama reaches the 2,118 delegates needed to be nominee presumptive, Clinton, in her speech tonight, will “acknowledge his accomplishment, without going so far as to drop out.”

So far the campaign hasn’t corrected that version. So, in the most Clintonian of ways, it seems that Hillary will end the primaries acknowledging Obama’s victory but not “conceding.”